4-17-15

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Almanac: Week: 16 \ Day:  107 
April Averages: 58°\27°
86004 Today: H 43°\L 19° Average Sky Cover: 95% 
Wind ave:   6mph\Gusts:  23mph
Ave. High: 59° Record High:  77° (1946) Ave. Low: 27° Record Low:  16° (1924)
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Observances Today:
Bat Appreciation Day
Blah, Blah, Blah Day
Ellis Island Family History Day
Ford Mustang Day
National Cheeseball Day    
National Day of Silence
National High Five Day
Nothing Like A Dame Day
Pet Owners Independence Day
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Observances This Week:
12-18
American Indian Awareness Week  
Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week
Health Information Privacy and Security Week
International Dark Sky Week
National Animal Control Appreciation Week
National Library Week
National Public Safety Telecommunicators (911 Operators) Week
National Student Employment Week
National Volunteer Week
Pan American Week
Undergraduate Research Week
Week of The Young Child
 
17-19

Cleaning For A Reason Week
Consumer Awareness Week
Global Youth Service Days
International Home Furnishings Market
International Wildlife Film Week
Money Smart Week 

National Infant Immunization Week
National Park Week
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1492 - Christopher Columbus signs contract with Spain to find Indies
1524 - Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, discovers New York Bay
1629 - 1st commercial fishery established
1704 - 1st successful US newspaper; published in Boston by John Campbell
1758 - Francis Williams, 1st US black college graduate, publishes poems
1797 - Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, in what would be
  one of the largest invasions of Spanish territories in America
1817 - 1st US school for deaf (Hartford, Conn)
1853 - US Marine Hospital at Presidio (SF) forms
1861 - Virginia secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination
1900 - 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession
1905 - US Supreme Court judges maximum work day unconstitutional
1907 - Ellis Island, NY-11,745 immigrants arrive
1912 - 1st unofficial gold record (Al Jolson's "Ragging The Baby To Sleep")
1920 - American Professional Football Association forms (NFL)
1924 - Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form
  Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)
1937 - Debut of cartoon characters Daffy Duck, Elmer J Fudd & Petunia Pig
1937 - Project to widen the approach to Oracle Road in Tucson begins.
1951 - NY Yankee Mickey Mantle's 1st game, he goes 1 for 4
1960 - American Samoa sets up a constitutional government
1961 - 1,400 Cuban exiles land in Bay of Pigs-doomed attempt to overthrow Castro
1964 - Ford Mustang formally introduced ($2,368 base)
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Sen Robert F Kennedy
1970 - Apollo 13 limps back safely, Beech-built oxygen tank no help
1972 - 1st Boston Women's Marathon won by Nina Kuscsik of NY in 3:10:26
1986 - IBM produces 1st megabit-chip
1986 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Larry McMurtry for "Lonesome Dove"
1987 - Julius Erving becomes 3rd NBA player to score 30,000 points
2002 - Four Canadian Forces soldiers are killed in Afghanistan by friendly
  fire from two US Air Force F-16s
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Today’s World Events through History
1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the
  court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date
  (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts
1534 - Sir Thomas More confined in Tower of London
1824 - Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54° 40'N
1875 - Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain
1975 - Khmer Rouge captures Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Kampuchea Natl Day)
1984 - During Libyan Embassy demonstration in London, British police
  officer Yvonne Fletcher shot dead
2013 - Same-sex marriage is legalized in New Zealand
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Interesting day. Mary texted me a picture of her brand new Honda. Very nice…bright red. Her first new car in over a decade.
I emailed a letter to the head of AZ CenturyLink. I spent some time thinking about it yesterday, wrote it this morning, waited a little while, re-read it then emailed it to him. Don’t know if it will change CenturyLink, but I sure felt better.  Summary was that I should have been able to get faster internet with a 5 minute call, not 10 calls over 15 days with no solution available. Explained that as a shareholder and a longtime customer, he needed to know how his people were dealing with this customer and probably others. I’ll see.
I had a little problem with my internet. Occasionally a site wouldn’t load and I’d get a message that I was not connected to the internet. Then in a few seconds, the message would disappear and everything was fine. I called repair service to see if I needed to change a setting on my computer with this superfast internet. A very nice lady reset my modem and changed the channel for my wifi. She said it was a common problem with new modems. The rest of today it has worked much faster than before and no messages. Happy camper here.
While technology has taken over so much of our lives, I am still stunned when something doesn’t work. Yesterday a guy flew a gyrocopter onto the Capitol lawn in DC. Really?!? Lots of ‘what if’s’ in the news. I see it as another wakeup call that things don’t always go as planned.
It was overcast most of the day as another cold front moves through. We even had a little light frozen rain.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Complete the series by making a selection from the pool.

Series: Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaea, Ares, Zeus, Cronus, Uranus, Poseidon, ?

Pool: Athena, Dionysus, Eros, Hades, Hephaestus, Hera

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
50 YEARS AGO-1965
~ Cross country skiing on a 20-inch packed base can be found at Bill William’s Mountain. The Snow Bowl has 3 feet of new snow at the Lodge and 10-12 inches up top. Chains are required for the road and night skiing is available on Friday and Saturday  from 6 to 10 p.m.
~  A record-breaking 25 inches of heavy, wet snow fell in town last week giving us 3.21 inches of moisture. Lake Mary is filling. -- H. 46 Tues. L. 25 Wed.
~ The heavy snowfall has put the lumber mills in difficulties as the logging trails are quagmires. Some 240 men are temporarily out of work.

…Harper’s Index…
1.2: number of prison inmates per 1000 people in China
4.8: in Russia
13.4: in Louisiana, US

…Language Facts…
~ There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”:
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
~ The Bible has been translated into Klingon.

… Sea Facts…
~ Sea otters hold hands while sleeping so they don’t drift away from each other.
~ It's impossible to sink in the Dead Sea without equipment!

…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Florence Nightingale is not only known as a founder of modern nursing, but also as a statistician, having developed the polar area diagram.

…Water Facts..,.
~ Hot water can freeze faster than cold water.
~ Pure water (H2O) does not conduct electricity on its own.

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2 jokes for the day
A speeding driver was pulled over by a policeman.
He asked, "Why was I pulled over when I wasn't the only one speeding."
The police replied, "Have you ever been fishing?"
The man then said, "yes".
"Have you ever caught all the fish?" asked the policeman
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One night a police officer was staking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible DUI violations. 
At closing time, he saw a fellow tumble out of the bar, trip on the curb, and try his keys in five different cars before he found his. 
Then he sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes. Everyone else left the bar and drove off. 
Finally he started his engine and began to pull away. The police officer was waiting for him. He stopped the driver, read him his rights and administered the Breathalyzer test. 
The results showed a reading of 0.0. The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be. 
The driver replied, "Tonight I'm the designated decoy.”        

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Yep, It Really Happened
LEESBURG, Ga. (UPI) - Police in Georgia said a bullet fired at an armadillo ricocheted off the animal's armored hide and struck the shooter's mother-in-law. The Lee County Sheriff's Office said Larry McElroy, 54, fired his 9 mm pistol at an armadillo Sunday night and the bullet bounced off the animal's armored skin and went through a fence, a door and a chair to strike mother-in-law Carol Johnson, 74, in the back.
Investigators said McElroy was about 100 yards away from Johnson's home when he fired the shot, which killed the armadillo. Bill Smith, an investigator with the sheriff's office, said Johnson was not severely injured.
"She was walking around on her own power and talking," Smith told WALB-TV. "It didn't appear to be too severe. They took her to Phoebe North [hospital]."
He described the case, which did not lead to any arrests or citations, as bizarre. "Just the circumstances, just all the way around, the whole situation was unusual," Smith said. Smith said shooting at nuisance armadillos is not against the law, but McElroy might want to use a different gun next time. "I really think if they're going to shoot at varmints and whatnot, maybe use a shotgun... with a spread pattern with a lot less range," Smith said. Armadillos are often seen as a nuisance by those whose lawns and gardens have been targeted by the skilled diggers.
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Somewhat Useless Information
1. The logo of the popular American TV series “Friends” has an -unnoticeable at first glance- connection with the 6 umbrellas used by the actors in the title song.
What’s their connection?
The color of the dots between the F.R.I.E.N.D.S logo is the same with the one of the 6 umbrellas used by the characters in the title song.
2. The “Friend” that is credited first is Jennifer Aniston (aka. Rachel).
And then they follow her in credits (listed by their character name): Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and finally, Ross.
3. The “Friend” that turns off the lights at the end of credits is Monica.
4. The theme song, entitled “I’ll be there for you” was recorded specifically for the needs of the show by the band “The Rembrandts”.
+++
There is a programming language called ‘Whitespace’
‘Whitespace’ is an esoteric programming language developed by Edwin Brady and Chris Morris at the University of Durham and was released on 1 April 2003.
The remarkable characteristic of this language is that unlike most programming languages, which ignore or assign little meaning to most whitespace characters, the Whitespace interpreter ignores any non-whitespace characters.
Only spaces, tabs and linefeeds have meaning!
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Birthday’s Today
64 - Olivia Hussey, Buenos Aires, actress (Romeo & Juliet, Death on Nile)
56 - Sean Bean, English actor (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, A Game of Thrones)
54 - Boomer Esiason, NFL quarterback (Jets, Bengals)\commentator
43 - Jennifer Garner [Affleck], actress (Sydney Bristow-Alias)
41 - Victoria Beckham [Adams], English singer (Posh Spice-Spice Girls)
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Remembered for being born today
Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder-1st Canadian saint 1620-1700@79 
Thornton N Wilder, US, novelist/playwright (Our Town) 1897-1975@78
– Karen Blixen (pseudo:Isak Dinesen), Dane, writer (Out of Africa) 1885-1962@77
Don Kirshner, rock & roll producer (invented bubblegum music) 1934-2011@76 
J. P. Morgan, banker/CEO (US Steel Corporation) 1837-1913@75 
William R. Day, American diplomat and Justice-Supreme Court 1849-1923@74 
Harry Reasoner, newscaster (60 Minutes, ABC, CBS) 1923-1991@68 
Robert Blair, Scottish poet (Grave) 1699-1746@47 
- [Lee] Alexander McQueen, fashion designer1969-2010@40 
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Historical Obits Today
Kateri Tekakwitha, Algonquin–Mohawk-1st Native American to receive
  beatification-1680@23ish
Benjamin Franklin, US, US Founding Father-1790@84
Eddie Cochran, rocker, car crash-1960@21
Frank McGee, Today show host, cancer-1974@52
Dick Shawn, comedian (Producers), heart attack on stage-1987@57
Ralph David Abernathy, US civil rights leader, blood clots-1990@64
Linda McCartney, American photographer\wife of Paul McCartney,
  cancer-1998@57
Kitty Carlisle, American actress and television personality-2007@97
Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist, (1982 Nobel Prize)
 pneumonia-2014@87
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Brain Teasers Answers
The series is the equivalent Greek names for the planets, which are Roman. When the Romans assimilated Greek mythology, they renamed many of the Greek gods.

Mercury = Hermes
Venus = Aphrodite
Earth = Gaea *
Mars = Ares
Jupiter = Zeus
Saturn = Cronus
Uranus = Uranus **
Neptune = Poseidon

thus

Pluto = Hades

* Although earth is not a Roman god, Gaea is Mother Earth in Greek mythology.
** The Romans did not change the name of the Greek Uranus.

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Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site contains mistakes and sadly once the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§…And That Is All for Now…§


4-16-15

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Almanac: Week: 16 \ Day:  106 
April Averages: 58°\27°
86004 Today: H 57°\L 29° Average Sky Cover: 10% 
Wind ave:   31mph\Gusts:  11mph
Ave. High: 59° Record High:  77° (1948) Ave. Low: 27° Record Low:  13° (1995)
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Observances Today:
Celebrate Teen Literature Day
Get to Know Your Customers Day
High Five Day
National Eggs Benedict Day
National Librarian Day
National Stress Awareness Day
« »
Observances This Week:
12-18
American Indian Awareness Week  
Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week
Health Information Privacy and Security Week
International Dark Sky Week
National Animal Control Appreciation Week
National Library Week
National Public Safety Telecommunicators (911 Operators) Week
National Student Employment Week
National Volunteer Week
Pan American Week
Undergraduate Research Week
Week of The Young Child
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1862 - Slavery abolished in District of Columbia
1922 - Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row
1937 -Tucson grocers moved to eliminate unfair merchandising methods. A
 minimum operation price was set at 6 percent over cost.
1940 - 1st televised baseball game, WGN-TV, (White Sox vs Cubs exhibition)
1943 - Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD
1962 - Brazil nationalizes US businesses
1962 - Walter Cronkite begins anchoring CBS Evening News 
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Today’s World Events through History
1178 BC - A solar eclipse may have marked the return of Odysseus, legendary
        King of Ithaca, to his kingdom after the Trojan War
1705 - Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge
1746 - Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under
 the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite army.        
1972 - 2 British soldiers are shot dead by the Official Irish Republican Army
 (OIRA) in separate incidents in Derry
2012 - For the first time since 1977 no Pulitzer Prize is awarded for fiction
2014 - South Korean ferry MV Sewol sinks on route Incheon to Jeju, 304 drown,
  mostly students. National controversy erupts over rescue efforts and actions
  of crew and owner
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


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My Rambling Thoughts
Total incompetency…Century link bill arrived with both modems charged to my account. Called. They will credit me for their mistake…next month. So I pay a $350 bill this month and then have credit show up for the next month. Crazy bureaucracy.
And to talk about spin… a cop rammed a man carrying a gun outside Tucson, back in February. It hit the internet a couple of days ago…probably because of the new scrutiny of Police around the country. The guy survived, admittedly was carrying a gun which had fired into the air. One cop watches him from his vehicle, another cop comes out of nowhere and rams the guy. The guy survives and the cops spin is that it was better to ram him than to let him fire again. Maybe, but seems pretty brutal.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
In each of the cases below, scramble the letters and then add an X at the end to make a new word. 
Example: coven + x = convex

1) real + x =
2) torah + x = 
3) compel + x = 
4) claim + x = 
5) nasty + x =
6) hoboes + x =

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
« » « »
…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
~ Paramount men are here seeking Indian actors who will be taken to Hollywood, where Cecil DeMille’s “Northwest Mounted Police" will be filmed.
~ There’s good news for the users of electricity by the Flagstaff Electrical Light Co. The rates are cut from 9 cents to 8 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 25 kwh per month, then to 5.5 cents  for the next 25 kwh. All in excess will be at 3 cents per kwh. All this is made possible by the increased use and improved facilities. George T. Herrington, Manager.
~ 500 ornamental trees and shrubs for curb planting have been purchased and will be at the city nursery for 2-3 years until they are large enough to be placed in their permanent locations.

…Harper’s Index…
1/8: estimated portion of black US men who are ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction

…Language Facts…
~ The word "listen" contains the same letters as "silent."
~ The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

… Sea Facts…
~ More than a dozen men have stood on the surface of the moon, but only three have been to Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, the deepest known spot in the ocean.
~ NYC's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) dumps old subway cars into the ocean to serve as artificial reef.

…Unusual Fact of the Day…
~ The Rams were the first pro football team to decorate their helmets. An early version of the "horn" motif is still used by the franchise today.

…Water Facts..,.
~ Pumice is the only rock that floats on water.
~ Water is actually naturally blue.

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2 jokes for the day
Why did Dorothy get lost in Oz? 

She had three men giving her directions.

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A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?" 
"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise." 
"That's amazing," said the woman, "how old are you?" 
"Twenty-Six" he said.        

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Yep, It Really Happened
ST. PAUL, Minn. (UPI) - The Minnesota Senate voted to keep rules banning senators from making eye contact during floor debate and from having drinking water on the floor. Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, spoke in favor of striking the rule that bars senators from looking at one another during floor debate, requiring them to instead keep their eyes on the Senate president. "I find this particular rule of the Senate, dare I say, antiquated," Limmer said. However, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, D-Cook, said the rule is still relevant to the process. He said looking at one another during debates could cause deliberations to become personal. "Our decorum would probably not be as Senate-like as we would like to have it" if the rule was changed, Bakk said. The Senate sided with Bakk in a 15-44 vote. The body also voted 10-51 Monday to keep a longstanding ban on beverages, including water, on the floor of the Senate. The votes earned the Senate some ribbing on Twitter from colleagues in the Minnesota House of Representatives. "Long Live the House! Where even Senators can come over and drink water on the House Floor," Rep. Tim Sanders, R-37B, tweeted. "Other Senate rules: use secret handshake, speak in iambic pentameter, drag Stone of Shame if you violate a rule," tweeted Rep. Mike Freiberg, D-45B.    
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Somewhat Useless Information
~ On average, humans sleep three hours less than other primates. Chimps, rhesus monkeys, and baboons sleep ten hours per night. 
~ When we sleep, we drift between rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep in alternating 90-minute cycles. 
~ Elephants stand while they're dozing in non-REM sleep, but once REM sleep kicks in, they lie down. Ducks are constantly at risk of being attacked by predators, so they keep half their brain awake while they sleep.
~ Studies have shown that our bodies experience diminished capacity after we've been awake for 17 hours, and we behave as if we were legally drunk. 
~ At least 10 percent of all people sleepwalk at least once in their lives, and men are more likely to sleepwalk than women. 
~ During their first year, babies cause between 400 and 750 hours of lost sleep for parents.

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Birthday’s Today
88 - Pope Benedict XVI [Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger], Catholic Pope (2005-2013)
80 - Bobby Vinton, Pitts Pa, singer (Roses are Red, Blue on Blue)
68 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, [Lew Alcindor], NBA center (Mil Bucks, LA Lakers)
63 - Bill Belichick, football coach (New England Patriots, 3 Super Bowls)
50 - Jon Cryer, actor (Pretty in Pink, Two and a Half Men)
50 - Martin Lawrence, comedian (Martin)
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Remembered for being born today
- Charles 'Charlie' Chaplin, actor/comedian (City Lights) 1889-1977@88 
Anatole France, writer (Thaïs, Wickerwork Woman, Nobel 1921) 1844-1924@80 
Gerry Rafferty, Paisley Scotland, guitarist/vocalist (Baker Street) 1947-2011@63 
John Hadley, mathematician/inventor (1st reflecting telescope) 1682-1744@61 
Dusty Springfield, [Mary O'Brien], vocalist 1939-1999@59
Wilbur Wright, Millville Indiana, aviator (Wright Brothers) 1867-1912@45
Selena [Quintanilla], tejano vocalist 1971-1995@23
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Historical Obits Today
Marie [Gresholtz] Tussaud, maker of wax figures-1850@88
Daryl Gates, LAPD Chief (DARE)-2010@83
Pat Summerall, NFL player \ sportscaster, 2013@82
Ralph Waldo Ellison, US writer (Invisible Man), dies at 80
Neville Brand, American actor (Stalag 17), emphysema-1992@71
Robert Urich, actor (Spencer for Hire), cancer, 2002@55
Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian-TB-1859@53
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Brain Teasers Answers
1) Relax
2) Thorax
3) Complex
4) Climax
5) Syntax
6) Shoebox

« » « »

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site contains mistakes and sadly once the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§…And That Is All for Now…§


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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.